Sexual Dichromatism in Sphaerodactylus stejnegeriAuthor(s): Chapman GrantSource: Copeia, Vol. 1949, No. 1 (Apr. 15, 1949), pp. 74-75Published by: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1437674 .

Accessed: 01/09/2014 14:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Copeia.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 1 Sep 2014 14:22:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

74 C 0 P E I A 1949, No. 1 April 15

Alachua County; near Worthington Springs. Duval County; near San Pablo, near Dinsmore, and near Baldwin. The southernmost record of this rattler in Florida was found August 18, 1948, in

Bradford County, 5? miles north of Waldo, toward Starke, along the Seaboard Railroad by M. E. De Shea, Waldo Railway Agent.-E. Ross ALLEN, Reptile Institute, Silver Springs, Florida.

EXTENSION OF RANGE OF CROTALUS LEPIDUS KLAUBERI.-While collect- ing mammals for the reference collection of the University of Miami, the authors were fortunate in securing a specimen of Crotalus lepidus klauberi. This specimen was collected on the Manzanital Ranch, owned by Mr. Wallace H. Pratt, located 6 miles north of Pine Springs on U.S. 62 and 180, and 6 miles to the west of the highway, Culberson County, Texas. Gloyd, in his mongraph on the rattlesnakes, published in 1940, indicates that the only Texas locality record is from El Paso County. The present specimen thus extends the range of this subspecies about 110 miles to the east in Texas. The snake was col- lected by Mr. Louis Kincaid, June 25, 1948, at an elevation of about 5000 feet in the Guadelupe Mountains, as it lay on a rock slab, basking in the early afternoon sun. It measures 61.6 cm., not including the rattle, which is composed of 9 segments. Scale count, 23-23-17. Coloration-body ground color light blue-gray peppered with dark brown granules; 19 dark body bands; tail tan with 3 bands varying from brown to tan posteriorly; ventrals light flesh colored with brown lateral blotches.-ALBERT SCHWARTZ and WILLIAM A. BABIS, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

A PREOCCUPIED NAME IN HYLA.-In a recently published paper (Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1[15], Aug. 16, 1948: 257-262) I described a new Mexican frog under the name Hyla proboscidea. This I find is preoccupied by Hyla proboscidea Brongersma (Zool. Anz., Bd. 103, Heft 9/10, 1933: 267-270). In consequence I propose Hyla dalquesti as a new name for this species, in honor of Mr. Walter W. Dalquest, who discovered the species.

The caption for the figures published with the type was inadvertently omitted. This should read as follows: Hyla dalquesti. A. Type, ventral view, region of the vent. B. Lateral view of head. C. Dorsal view of type (slightly diagrammatic).-EDWARD H. TAYLOR, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN SPHAERODACTYLUS STEJNEGERI.-On Sep- tember 18, 1948, I received a small lot of reptiles from Mr. Anthony Curtiss of Port-au- Prince, Haiti, with the following notes: ". they were collected at Hatte Lathan, which is a place on the Cul-de-sac Plain, a few miles from Damiens ... in Sept. and Oct., 1947."

A cursory count led me to believe that the shipment contained 19 beautifully banded specimens of S. stejnegeri Barbour, representing two distinct patterns. Some corresponded to Dr. Cochran's description and illustration of the type, USNM 76640, and others to her description of the paratypes, USNM 60617 and MCZ 13481, wherein she makes no mention of the sex of the 3 specimens. As a consequence I assumed that the two patterns differentiated the sexes, but examination showed that none of these bore an escutcheon, which denotes the males in every species of sphaerodactyl which I have seen. Further examination revealed that a specimen of each pattern contained an egg and one specimen was intermediate in pattern. All patterned specimens were females.

In the preliminary sorting I had separated 14 uninteresting looking specimens for later identification. These bore a superficial resemblance to light colored S. cinereus. Upon examination all these turned out to be males, without pattern, but with a dark occipital area; the entire upper surface was light to medium brown due to minute specks on the scales; the underside clear cream color.

Of these Mr. Curtiss writes: "There is small brownish sphaerodactyl with orange throat and tail that we have thought to be male cinereus. They lose these colors in pre- servative. You will find some of these in this batch." It seems possible that some museum collections may contain males of S. stejnegeri among their S. cinereus. An easy way of distinguishing them is that the branches of the escutcheon stop halfway to the knee in S. stejnegeri, but continue to the knee in S. cinereus.

74 C 0 P E I A 1949, No. 1 April 15

Alachua County; near Worthington Springs. Duval County; near San Pablo, near Dinsmore, and near Baldwin. The southernmost record of this rattler in Florida was found August 18, 1948, in

Bradford County, 5? miles north of Waldo, toward Starke, along the Seaboard Railroad by M. E. De Shea, Waldo Railway Agent.-E. Ross ALLEN, Reptile Institute, Silver Springs, Florida.

EXTENSION OF RANGE OF CROTALUS LEPIDUS KLAUBERI.-While collect- ing mammals for the reference collection of the University of Miami, the authors were fortunate in securing a specimen of Crotalus lepidus klauberi. This specimen was collected on the Manzanital Ranch, owned by Mr. Wallace H. Pratt, located 6 miles north of Pine Springs on U.S. 62 and 180, and 6 miles to the west of the highway, Culberson County, Texas. Gloyd, in his mongraph on the rattlesnakes, published in 1940, indicates that the only Texas locality record is from El Paso County. The present specimen thus extends the range of this subspecies about 110 miles to the east in Texas. The snake was col- lected by Mr. Louis Kincaid, June 25, 1948, at an elevation of about 5000 feet in the Guadelupe Mountains, as it lay on a rock slab, basking in the early afternoon sun. It measures 61.6 cm., not including the rattle, which is composed of 9 segments. Scale count, 23-23-17. Coloration-body ground color light blue-gray peppered with dark brown granules; 19 dark body bands; tail tan with 3 bands varying from brown to tan posteriorly; ventrals light flesh colored with brown lateral blotches.-ALBERT SCHWARTZ and WILLIAM A. BABIS, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

A PREOCCUPIED NAME IN HYLA.-In a recently published paper (Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1[15], Aug. 16, 1948: 257-262) I described a new Mexican frog under the name Hyla proboscidea. This I find is preoccupied by Hyla proboscidea Brongersma (Zool. Anz., Bd. 103, Heft 9/10, 1933: 267-270). In consequence I propose Hyla dalquesti as a new name for this species, in honor of Mr. Walter W. Dalquest, who discovered the species.

The caption for the figures published with the type was inadvertently omitted. This should read as follows: Hyla dalquesti. A. Type, ventral view, region of the vent. B. Lateral view of head. C. Dorsal view of type (slightly diagrammatic).-EDWARD H. TAYLOR, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN SPHAERODACTYLUS STEJNEGERI.-On Sep- tember 18, 1948, I received a small lot of reptiles from Mr. Anthony Curtiss of Port-au- Prince, Haiti, with the following notes: ". they were collected at Hatte Lathan, which is a place on the Cul-de-sac Plain, a few miles from Damiens ... in Sept. and Oct., 1947."

A cursory count led me to believe that the shipment contained 19 beautifully banded specimens of S. stejnegeri Barbour, representing two distinct patterns. Some corresponded to Dr. Cochran's description and illustration of the type, USNM 76640, and others to her description of the paratypes, USNM 60617 and MCZ 13481, wherein she makes no mention of the sex of the 3 specimens. As a consequence I assumed that the two patterns differentiated the sexes, but examination showed that none of these bore an escutcheon, which denotes the males in every species of sphaerodactyl which I have seen. Further examination revealed that a specimen of each pattern contained an egg and one specimen was intermediate in pattern. All patterned specimens were females.

In the preliminary sorting I had separated 14 uninteresting looking specimens for later identification. These bore a superficial resemblance to light colored S. cinereus. Upon examination all these turned out to be males, without pattern, but with a dark occipital area; the entire upper surface was light to medium brown due to minute specks on the scales; the underside clear cream color.

Of these Mr. Curtiss writes: "There is small brownish sphaerodactyl with orange throat and tail that we have thought to be male cinereus. They lose these colors in pre- servative. You will find some of these in this batch." It seems possible that some museum collections may contain males of S. stejnegeri among their S. cinereus. An easy way of distinguishing them is that the branches of the escutcheon stop halfway to the knee in S. stejnegeri, but continue to the knee in S. cinereus.

74 C 0 P E I A 1949, No. 1 April 15

Alachua County; near Worthington Springs. Duval County; near San Pablo, near Dinsmore, and near Baldwin. The southernmost record of this rattler in Florida was found August 18, 1948, in

Bradford County, 5? miles north of Waldo, toward Starke, along the Seaboard Railroad by M. E. De Shea, Waldo Railway Agent.-E. Ross ALLEN, Reptile Institute, Silver Springs, Florida.

EXTENSION OF RANGE OF CROTALUS LEPIDUS KLAUBERI.-While collect- ing mammals for the reference collection of the University of Miami, the authors were fortunate in securing a specimen of Crotalus lepidus klauberi. This specimen was collected on the Manzanital Ranch, owned by Mr. Wallace H. Pratt, located 6 miles north of Pine Springs on U.S. 62 and 180, and 6 miles to the west of the highway, Culberson County, Texas. Gloyd, in his mongraph on the rattlesnakes, published in 1940, indicates that the only Texas locality record is from El Paso County. The present specimen thus extends the range of this subspecies about 110 miles to the east in Texas. The snake was col- lected by Mr. Louis Kincaid, June 25, 1948, at an elevation of about 5000 feet in the Guadelupe Mountains, as it lay on a rock slab, basking in the early afternoon sun. It measures 61.6 cm., not including the rattle, which is composed of 9 segments. Scale count, 23-23-17. Coloration-body ground color light blue-gray peppered with dark brown granules; 19 dark body bands; tail tan with 3 bands varying from brown to tan posteriorly; ventrals light flesh colored with brown lateral blotches.-ALBERT SCHWARTZ and WILLIAM A. BABIS, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

A PREOCCUPIED NAME IN HYLA.-In a recently published paper (Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1[15], Aug. 16, 1948: 257-262) I described a new Mexican frog under the name Hyla proboscidea. This I find is preoccupied by Hyla proboscidea Brongersma (Zool. Anz., Bd. 103, Heft 9/10, 1933: 267-270). In consequence I propose Hyla dalquesti as a new name for this species, in honor of Mr. Walter W. Dalquest, who discovered the species.

The caption for the figures published with the type was inadvertently omitted. This should read as follows: Hyla dalquesti. A. Type, ventral view, region of the vent. B. Lateral view of head. C. Dorsal view of type (slightly diagrammatic).-EDWARD H. TAYLOR, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN SPHAERODACTYLUS STEJNEGERI.-On Sep- tember 18, 1948, I received a small lot of reptiles from Mr. Anthony Curtiss of Port-au- Prince, Haiti, with the following notes: ". they were collected at Hatte Lathan, which is a place on the Cul-de-sac Plain, a few miles from Damiens ... in Sept. and Oct., 1947."

A cursory count led me to believe that the shipment contained 19 beautifully banded specimens of S. stejnegeri Barbour, representing two distinct patterns. Some corresponded to Dr. Cochran's description and illustration of the type, USNM 76640, and others to her description of the paratypes, USNM 60617 and MCZ 13481, wherein she makes no mention of the sex of the 3 specimens. As a consequence I assumed that the two patterns differentiated the sexes, but examination showed that none of these bore an escutcheon, which denotes the males in every species of sphaerodactyl which I have seen. Further examination revealed that a specimen of each pattern contained an egg and one specimen was intermediate in pattern. All patterned specimens were females.

In the preliminary sorting I had separated 14 uninteresting looking specimens for later identification. These bore a superficial resemblance to light colored S. cinereus. Upon examination all these turned out to be males, without pattern, but with a dark occipital area; the entire upper surface was light to medium brown due to minute specks on the scales; the underside clear cream color.

Of these Mr. Curtiss writes: "There is small brownish sphaerodactyl with orange throat and tail that we have thought to be male cinereus. They lose these colors in pre- servative. You will find some of these in this batch." It seems possible that some museum collections may contain males of S. stejnegeri among their S. cinereus. An easy way of distinguishing them is that the branches of the escutcheon stop halfway to the knee in S. stejnegeri, but continue to the knee in S. cinereus.

74 C 0 P E I A 1949, No. 1 April 15

Alachua County; near Worthington Springs. Duval County; near San Pablo, near Dinsmore, and near Baldwin. The southernmost record of this rattler in Florida was found August 18, 1948, in

Bradford County, 5? miles north of Waldo, toward Starke, along the Seaboard Railroad by M. E. De Shea, Waldo Railway Agent.-E. Ross ALLEN, Reptile Institute, Silver Springs, Florida.

EXTENSION OF RANGE OF CROTALUS LEPIDUS KLAUBERI.-While collect- ing mammals for the reference collection of the University of Miami, the authors were fortunate in securing a specimen of Crotalus lepidus klauberi. This specimen was collected on the Manzanital Ranch, owned by Mr. Wallace H. Pratt, located 6 miles north of Pine Springs on U.S. 62 and 180, and 6 miles to the west of the highway, Culberson County, Texas. Gloyd, in his mongraph on the rattlesnakes, published in 1940, indicates that the only Texas locality record is from El Paso County. The present specimen thus extends the range of this subspecies about 110 miles to the east in Texas. The snake was col- lected by Mr. Louis Kincaid, June 25, 1948, at an elevation of about 5000 feet in the Guadelupe Mountains, as it lay on a rock slab, basking in the early afternoon sun. It measures 61.6 cm., not including the rattle, which is composed of 9 segments. Scale count, 23-23-17. Coloration-body ground color light blue-gray peppered with dark brown granules; 19 dark body bands; tail tan with 3 bands varying from brown to tan posteriorly; ventrals light flesh colored with brown lateral blotches.-ALBERT SCHWARTZ and WILLIAM A. BABIS, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.

A PREOCCUPIED NAME IN HYLA.-In a recently published paper (Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1[15], Aug. 16, 1948: 257-262) I described a new Mexican frog under the name Hyla proboscidea. This I find is preoccupied by Hyla proboscidea Brongersma (Zool. Anz., Bd. 103, Heft 9/10, 1933: 267-270). In consequence I propose Hyla dalquesti as a new name for this species, in honor of Mr. Walter W. Dalquest, who discovered the species.

The caption for the figures published with the type was inadvertently omitted. This should read as follows: Hyla dalquesti. A. Type, ventral view, region of the vent. B. Lateral view of head. C. Dorsal view of type (slightly diagrammatic).-EDWARD H. TAYLOR, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

SEXUAL DICHROMATISM IN SPHAERODACTYLUS STEJNEGERI.-On Sep- tember 18, 1948, I received a small lot of reptiles from Mr. Anthony Curtiss of Port-au- Prince, Haiti, with the following notes: ". they were collected at Hatte Lathan, which is a place on the Cul-de-sac Plain, a few miles from Damiens ... in Sept. and Oct., 1947."

A cursory count led me to believe that the shipment contained 19 beautifully banded specimens of S. stejnegeri Barbour, representing two distinct patterns. Some corresponded to Dr. Cochran's description and illustration of the type, USNM 76640, and others to her description of the paratypes, USNM 60617 and MCZ 13481, wherein she makes no mention of the sex of the 3 specimens. As a consequence I assumed that the two patterns differentiated the sexes, but examination showed that none of these bore an escutcheon, which denotes the males in every species of sphaerodactyl which I have seen. Further examination revealed that a specimen of each pattern contained an egg and one specimen was intermediate in pattern. All patterned specimens were females.

In the preliminary sorting I had separated 14 uninteresting looking specimens for later identification. These bore a superficial resemblance to light colored S. cinereus. Upon examination all these turned out to be males, without pattern, but with a dark occipital area; the entire upper surface was light to medium brown due to minute specks on the scales; the underside clear cream color.

Of these Mr. Curtiss writes: "There is small brownish sphaerodactyl with orange throat and tail that we have thought to be male cinereus. They lose these colors in pre- servative. You will find some of these in this batch." It seems possible that some museum collections may contain males of S. stejnegeri among their S. cinereus. An easy way of distinguishing them is that the branches of the escutcheon stop halfway to the knee in S. stejnegeri, but continue to the knee in S. cinereus.

This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 1 Sep 2014 14:22:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1949, No. 1 April 15 HERPETOLOGICAL NOTES 75

Among the 19 banded specimens, one is half-grown and appears to be a female, but 5 specimens are only 2 cm. long s-v, and although none has an escutcheon visible it appears probable that one or more may be young males in which case the series of 33 would contain 17 females and 16 males. It is my assumption that males and females hatch with the same banded pattern; that males lose their pattern entirely and that females mature before the banded pattern adds the speckled area between the bands that denotes fully patterned females.

Sphaerodactylus stejnegeri. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 females. Figs. 5, 6, 7 males. 1, adult female show- ing inter-band pattern. 2, lower side of same pattern as 1. 3, mature, but apparently not fully patterned female. 4, lower side of same pattern as 3. 5, 6, lower side of males. 7, upper side of male. Note dark occipital area. 8, similar to 1.

Sexual dimorphism in which the male loses all pattern and becomes plain exists also in S. roosevelti Grant, of Puerto Rico, and S. parkeri Grant, of Jamaica, but these two bear no other resemblance to S. stejnegeri.-CHAPrAN GRANT, 2970 Sixth Avenue, San Diego 3, California.

This content downloaded from 162.38.186.136 on Mon, 1 Sep 2014 14:22:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions